West Seattle Crime Watch: Arrest details; another break-in

2 West Seattle Crime Watch reports: First, more details on the burglary arrest announced by Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Steve Paulsen (here’s the Thursday story). The suspect is 31 years old and, according to the incident report, was tracked down after a report of a burglary at a home under construction in the 1500 block of Sunset Avenue (map) in North Admiral. A construction crew member told the responding officer that the burglary was the second one recently – the first time, wiring had been cut and stolen, and that wiring had just been replaced on Wednesday, one day before it was cut and stolen again; water pipes were cut away too. SPD Media Unit Detective Mark Jamieson adds that “information shared between Patrol and detectives matched the M.O. of someone they were aware of,” and subsequent investigation led to the suspect’s arrest as he tried to “recycle”/sell the stolen property. He’s still in jail, not yet charged so we’re not using his name; Det. Jamieson says police found drugs on him as well, so he is facing potential charges for that as well as burglary, according to the jail register. This is all just from the report for this arrest, so too early to say if he indeed will be linked to other break-ins.

And as if to underscore the point that one arrest never solves everything (so don’t stop being vigilant), a few hours later, a burglary was reported at midday – read on for that report:

Todd sent the note:

My neighbor was burglarized on 17th Ave SW on the 5900 block just West of South Seattle Community College (Thursday) between 10 am and 1 pm. They bent the steel bars in the back of the house, broke the glass, and someone very slim must have slipped through to open the door for his/her accomplices. They ransacked the bedrooms and stole valuables. They must have pulled a vehicle up the driveway and loaded the stolen materials before making a getaway. If anyone saw suspicious activities in that area, please respond to this post and report to the police.

9 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Arrest details; another break-in"

  • Maureen April 22, 2011 (12:23 pm)

    someone attempted to kick in my basement door on the 6500 block of 40th Avenue SW last week. I have a contractor working on the house and today he noticied two suspicious looking males carrying a golf club and walking down the street. he watched them for about five minutes and when they relaized they were being watched, they jumped into a car where a woman was waiting and quickly drove off. Police were notified, first three letters on the cars plates were 876

  • dsa April 22, 2011 (2:00 pm)

    I wish they had could have caught the slimball stealing the copper red handed.

  • Newbie April 22, 2011 (2:51 pm)


    As we were walking our dog on SW Myrtle by gate wood neighborhood two weeks ago and we saw these two man knocking on random doors. My husband took a picture of them as one of them left a house. They were very mad that we took their photo and gave us a story pretending to be lost. We followed them down a few blocks and they disappeared. They kept looking back at us and did not knock on any more doors after we confronted them. Just an FYI.
    Also, Our gps was stolen from our car last night. We just moved to this neighborhood and it has so far been leaving us with a bad taste. We love the area but we wish police would be more proactive about these incidents.
    They pretty much told me that they don’t care on the phone regarding my gps today. Anyway, we thought this photo may help someone

  • Single Mother April 22, 2011 (3:16 pm)

    What’s the point?! They will just get early release if a conviction can be made. We will just have to be vigilant and watch out for each others.I don’t know if there has been too much cut back in the police budget or they just don’t care. Will everyone call the police department and ask them to make it a higher priority, PLEASE.

  • Jane April 22, 2011 (3:32 pm)

    Newbie, I’m so sorry to hear about your GPS system being stolen. Don’t judge all of West Seattle by that, please. We’re good folks. One thing that the police are always encouraging us to do is call 911 when we see something suspicious. Did you do that when you saw the two men knocking on doors? MUCH better to call 911 right away than to try to take photos of them and engage with them. You may just be seeing one incident, but the police have the whole picture so anything that citizens can add to it helps speed prosecution and create longer jail sentences for criminals. They can’t do anything if they aren’t called.

  • Newbie April 22, 2011 (4:23 pm)

    Hi Jane. Unfortunately we did not call them after we saw them. It was our second week in the neighborhood and I guess I should say we didn’t know any better. I guess after the gps is stolen we learned our lesson. However, even after I called the police they did not seem to care much. That did not boost our confidence either. I’m trying to see this as an isolated incident but reading other blog entities makes me little bit more uneasy about the whole thing. We so far love the new home and the area but it’s a whole another thing to not feel safe and feel violated. It seems like these are bunch of young “kids” that commit these crimes. I would hope that the police has some kind of an idea where they are coming from based on their profiling.
    We have lived in an urban setting for a long time. Even lived in high crime cities on the east coast. However, I must say that having experienced two-three incidents in one month makes me believe that something more proactive could be done by the police in this neighborhood to prevent or perhaps reduce the amount of incidences such as these in this community.

  • old timer April 22, 2011 (9:26 pm)

    I’m not so sure that the police do not care.
    It may be just their frustration of dealing with great numbers of
    GPS thefts after repeated warnings to not leave the things in your vehicle.
    This blog and it’s crime watch pages are full, full, full of this stuff.
    Even I know that if I leave it in the car, whatever it is,
    it is as good as gone.

  • Your West Seattle Neighbor April 23, 2011 (12:01 pm)

    I live near the Alaska Junction and feel safe, even very late at night, walking to the grocery store or just around the block. It saddens me to know that the very thing that the hard working people of our community do to keep our neighborhood beautiful and desirable is what draws the unwanted element of criminals out of the gutters.
    I’m not losing hope, but rather taking the advice of the people here and calling the police as often as needed to keep my neighbors, and myself safe.
    On a lighter note, when my friends that have chosen to live in downtown Seattle ask why I live in West Seattle. I politely say, ” Bridges make great neighbors”. Maybe they get it, maybe they don’t. :) I know I am at the right end of that bridge!

  • Newbie April 23, 2011 (2:34 pm)

    Thank you “west Seattle neighbor” for your positive input. We are definitely going to enjoy our new life here at West Seattle. All of our neighbors are very friendly and we love the community. From now on we know how to proceed when unexpected & unfortunate situations. It is very nice to have a blog like this for this community where nice people like yourself help give us positive outlook and lend a helping hand. It is gorgeous out today which gave us a chance to explore our new and very beautiful community.

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